Bush and Gore Make Me Wanna Ralph A Letter from
Michael Moore to the Non-Voters of America

Dear friends,

DISCLAIMER: If you are planning to vote for Al Gore in November, good for
you. Don't let what I'm about to say change your mind because I've been
told by all the experts that if you do change your mind based on what I'm
about to say, George W. Bush might win the election and I certainly couldn't
live with myself if that connoisseur of pharmaceuticals (the kind you snort up
your nose or the kind you inject on death row) won, in part, because of a
letter I spit out over the Internet.< br>

So let's review-you like Gore, you vote for Gore. He's a decent guy. I
met him last year at some benefit, he came up to me, big hug-whoa, this veep
is no stiff, I thought-and thanked me for this and that. He even quoted lines
from "The Awful Truth" - whoa, scary, I thought, what's he doing watching
cable channels above 40 on the box...not much to do on this veep gig, eh?

I told him I admired what he did when he came home to America as a Vietnam
Vet and spoke out against the war. That took a lot of courage, I said (his dad
lost his Senate seat for being an early opponent of the war).

So, if Al Gore is your man, go for it. In fact, I insist on it, even if you
are just throwing your vote away.

What I am about to say, though, is not intended for any Al Gore (or George
W.) voters. If you are one, please click off now.

To Whom It May Concern:

I address this letter to the largest political party in the United States -
the 55% of you in the voting public who are so disillusioned with politics and
politicians, so sick and tired of all the broken promises, so disgusted with
all the b.s. that you have absolutely no intention of voting in November. You
know who you are. AND YOU ARE THE MAJORITY! You rule. You are the Non-Voters,
all 100 million of you!

Until now, you have been the subject of scorn and ridicule. You've been
called apathetic, lazy, ignorant. Your actions have been viewed as unAmerican
(I mean, what kind of citizen in the World's Greatest Democracy would not
exercise his or her most important and cherished right - the right to freely
choose your leader!).

Well, may I be the first to tell you that, not only are you NOT stupid and
apathetic, I believe you are smarter than all the rest of us combined. YOU
figured it out. YOU uncovered the scam. And YOU had the guts to no longer
participate in a lie. Way to go! In 1996, you helped set the all-time American
record for lowest turnout ever at a presidential election.

The reason you, the majority, no longer vote in America is because you, the
majority, realize there is no real choice on the ballot. The "two" parties
both do the bidding of the wealthy and agree with each other on 90% of the
issues. They take 90% of their money from people who make over a hundred-grand
a year, and then enact over 90% of the laws those contributors want
passed.

On the ballot this November, you already know there is no contest. The
independent Cook Political Report in D.C. last week announced that, out of 435
House seats up for election in November, there are only 47 seats where there
is a "true race" between opponents - and, of those, only 14 seats have a race
that is even "close" between the two candidates. 14 out of 435!

"Ninety-seven to ninety-nine percent of incumbents running for re-election
will be returned to Congress in November," according to the Cook Report. The
Non-Voters already understand this. And they are not going to waste one iota
of their day on November 7 driving to some smelly elementary school gymnasium
to participate in a Soviet-style election with no friggin' choice on the
ballot.

So, to you brave voter-resisters, I say congratulations on your act of
civic disobedience! I joined you this primary season and refused to go along
with this charade of "choice." Nearly 80% of those of us of voting age - over
160 million Americans - staged a sit-in on our living room couches during this
year's primaries. THAT is the great untold story of this election year. How
much longer will the punditocracy be able to get away with dismissing this
massive no-show as "a sign Americans are content with the booming
economy?"

Now that we have made our presence known (you all don't mind me speaking
for us, do you? Good. In fact, I'll just assume the currently-vacant mantle
of this majority party and serve as your leader until you say otherwise...),
it is time to find a way that says, loudly and clearly, just how mad as hell
we are and how we are not going to take it anymore. We need to find a way
where our vote screams "None of the Above!" A chance to act, like that Chinese
guy in Tieneman Square, standing in front of a moving tank and stopping it in
its path.

In November, we should find a way to follow in the footsteps of those
intelligent Minnesotans who, even thought they could care less about
professional wrestling (and even less, I'm sure, for Jesse "The Body"),
proved to the world that they not only have a sense of humor, but they know
how to stick it to the whole bloody system. Think of just how high their
level of anger must have been against the One-Party-With-Two-Heads monopoly! I
mean, state government is no joke - somebody's gotta build the roads, run the
schools, catch the criminals. You don't want to turn the asylum over to the
chief lunatic but, damn it, that's what the people of Minnesota did - just to
send a message! Wow. That took some guts.

So, for those of you who weren't going to vote anyway, well...what if you
actually did? What if you drove down to that stinky gym where the little shell
game behind the pretend curtains is taking place ("Pay no attention to the
voters behind the curtains!"), walk in, sign in, take the ballot they hand
you, and toss yourselves inside the booth like a political molotov
cocktail.

Boom!

"You wanna tell me there's a choice here between two guys who both support
NAFTA, WTO, the death penalty, the Cuban embargo, increased Pentagon spending,
sleazy HMOs, greedy hospital chains, 250 million guns in our homes, more
bombing of Iraq, the rich getting richer and the rest of us declaring
bankruptcy?"

Boom!

Not me.

Boom!

I'm voting for Ralph Nader.

KAAAABOOM!

Friends, we are losing our democratic control over our country. We may have
already lost it. I hope not. But in the last 20 years of the Reagan
administration, Corporate America has merged and morphed itself to such an
extent that just a handful of companies now call all the shots. They own
Congress. They own us. In order to work for them, we have to take urine tests
and lie detectors and wear bar codes on chains around our necks. In order to
keep our jobs we have had to give up decent health care, the 8-hour day (and
time with our kids), the security that we'll even have a job next year, and
any unwillingness we may have to compete with a 14-year old Indonesian girl
who gets a dollar a day.

And how frightening (and great) is it that the last place we can freely try
to inform and communicate with each other is on this very Web? Six companies
run by six men control the majority of the news we now get from newspapers,
television, radio and the Internet. One out of every two books is bought at a
bookstore owned by one of only two companies. Is it safe in a "free society"
to have the sources of our information and mass communication in the hands of
just a few wealthy men who have a VESTED interest in keeping us as stupid as
possible - or at least in keeping us thinking like them so that we vote for
THEIR candidates?

I fear the cement on this new oligarchy of power is quickly drying, and
when it is finished hardening, we are finished. The democracy, the one that's
supposed to be of, by, and for the people, will cease to exist.

We must not let this happen, no matter how cynical and disgusted we've
become at the whole electoral process.

Ralph Nader, to me, represents a chance for us to at least temporarily stop
the cement from drying. We need him in there kicking things up, stirring the
pot and forcing a real debate about the issues. Whether it's Ralph as
Candidate or Ralph as President, he may represent our last hope to get our
country back from the clutches of the powerful few.

I am not writing these words lightly. I am hoping to sound a siren and
rally the majority who, for good reason, have given up - but might just have
it in them to find the will for one last fight against the bastards.

Can Ralph win? Well, stranger things have happened in the past decade.
C'mon, think about it, not a single one of us ever thought we'd see the
Berlin Wall come down or Nelson Mandela as President of South Africa. After
those two things happened, I joined a new school of thought that said ANYTHING
was possible. Jesse Ventura started with 3% in the polls and won. Ross Perot
in ‘92 started with 6% and, after proving to everyone that he was certifiably
insane, still got nearly 20% of the vote.

Ralph already has between 7% and 10% in the polls - before he's done any
serious campaigning. He's gone from 3% to 8% in my home state of Michigan.
These are amazing numbers and the pundits and lobbyists and Republicrats are
running scared. Hey, you like to watch scared Republicrats running? Tell a
pollster you're voting for Ralph.

Now, look, before you all send me a lot of mail about how weird Ralph is
`cause he doesn't own a car or is a "sell-out" `cause he's got a few
million dollars, let me say this: I used to work out of his office, and Ralph
is definitely one of a kind. In a future letter I will write of those
experiences but, for now, let's just agree that Ralph is at least half as
crazy as Jesse Ventura - and about a hundred times as smart. I'd say he's
also saved about a million or so lives, thanks to the consumer and
environmental legislation he has devoted his life to.

And between Gore, Bush, and himself, he's the only person running who
would guarantee universal health care for all, the only candidate who would
raise the minimum wage to a decent level, the only one who would get up each
morning asking himself the question, "What can I do today to serve all the
people of this country?"

The list goes on and on. You can read more about what Ralph stands for by
going to his website (http://www.votenader.org). You'll agree, I'm sure,
there's lots of common sense there, regardless of what political stripe you
are.

But remember. If you are even THINKING of voting for Al Gore, vote for Al
Gore. Ralph Nader does not need a single Gore vote. There are a hundred
million of us out there who are uncommitted and currently not voting. Right
now, Gore and Bush are each hoping to win by getting only 40 million
votes.

If you are in the Non-Voting majority and want to let ‘em all have it, if
you want to get our country back in our hands...well, if even half of you show
up and vote November 7 then you won't be held responsible for Bush winning
the White House.

In fact, you won't be held responsible for putting Gore in the White
House, either.

Rather, you will have made history by putting a true American hero at 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue.

And you will have given every company, every boss who's done ya wrong, the
worst nightmare of their lives.

PS. Come to think of it, Democrats should be on their knees thanking Ralph
for running. Rather than taking votes from Gore, Ralph's going to be the one
responsible for turning the House back over to the Democrats.

When millions of these Non-Voters enter that booth to vote for Ralph, and
they come across their local race for Congress, they will find no Green Party
candidate in most of the 435 Congressional districts. So who do you think
Ralph's army of Non-Voters will plunk down for Congress? The Republican? I
don't think so.

The Democrats are only six seats short of regaining control of the House.
Ralph Nader will be the reason the Democrats get the House back for the first
time since Newt's Contract on America in 1994.

(Or, better yet, let's try to elect enough Greens to Congress-a dozen or
so- and they'll hold the deciding votes because neither the Democrats nor
the Republicans will have the majority. It'll be a friggin' Knesset!)

PPS. If you're still worried this letter might convince a weak-kneed Gore
voter to flip over to Nader - and thus lead to President George W. stacking
the Supreme Court to make abortion illegal, well, it's all a bunch of hooey.
Please read my latest grassroots.com column entitled, "I Ain't Fallin for
That One Again" at: http://www.michaelmoore.com/aint.html

PLEASE PASS THIS LETTER ON TO YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY. PERMISSION IS
GRANTED TO REPRINT ANYWHERE.

Yo! I'm not running for president any more. The Ralph Nader/Winona LaDuke
ticket is the nominee. I endorse them. So register! Vote! Show up! Here is
what I wrote during the primary season for synthesis/regeneration, the
Green's magazine. Thought you might want to read it. –JB

I have been an artist/activist since 1978. I was the leader and creative
force of pioneering punk band Dead Kennedys. I have owned and operated a
small business, Alternative Tentacles Records, for the past two decades.

I ran for Mayor of San Francisco in 1979, and placed fourth out of ten
candidates.

I was the main target in the first criminal trial over a record album in
American history. The jury deadlocked and the charges were dismissed. This
vaulted me into the national media and lecture circuit as a spokesman on civil
liberties. I have locked horns with Tipper Gore, Oprah Winfrey, and many
Religious Right activists on this issue.

Besides music, I have released five spoken word CD sets that boil down and
promote many ideas dear to Greens and others, including issues such as: human
rights, freedom of speech, the Gulf War, the Drug War/Prison-Industrial
Complex, globalization and the WTO, and a newer emphasis on how to fight
back.

I have been registered Green for many years, and support the Green Key
Values and platform. But how do we implement and sell our key values and
programs to the general public?

A few ideas:

Enact a maximum wage: Nader's vision is a great idea. When I got the
producer to air it on Politically Incorrect I was roundly booed by the
audience and guests alike. The host told the viewers I was crazy before he
even said my name. People assume they're the ones who'll get hurt when the
big bad government hits the middle class with another evil tax.

So let's be generous-no taxes up ‘til $100,000; after that it's payback
time. And emphasize the payback: free health care, free education (including
an amnesty on all student loans), free transportation (including air travel),
and more.

Revenue will be used for the many costly programs in the Green platform and
long overdue public works projects, vastly increased subsidies for the arts,
especially pirate community radio and television; subsidies for independent
organic farms, hemp and kanaf farms (to end dependence on paper from forests),
and solar and windmill farms to decrease our fossil fuel gluttony.

Urban blight can be further eradicated by legalizing and subsidizing
squatters who fix up long-vacant buildings. This has worked well in Europe
when given a chance; think of what it could do for places like East St. Louis
or Richmond, VA. Speed up conversion to electric buses, trucks, a national
high-speed rail system, and , of course, electric cars.

We don't need a flat tax, but a flattening tax, to truly level the playing
field. After all, what causes more damage to the planet, drug addiction or
wealth addiction? Hopefully this will raise enough money to fill the cups of
everyone who makes less than $100,000, so we'll all be even.

We must close all of the hemorrhaging tax loopholes that benefit giant
corporations, including organized religion.

Taxpayers should also be given a multiple choice of the ten or fifteen
major areas of government to decide what percentage of their tax money goes
where. My guess is that education and the environment will go straight up,
and the arms race and the drug war/prison boom will go straight down.

Abolish the Military. All undemocratic and harmful branches of government
such as the CIA, NSA, DIA, DEA, ATF, hopefully the FBI, will be abolished and
disband all SWAT teams.

Our biggest national security threat is the environmental destruction of
our planet, the Earth, and the arms race with… ourselves. So use the defense
budget, personnel, and know-how for a new mission: cleaning up toxic waste,
rebuilding cities and their infrastructure, dismantling all nuclear arms and
satellites, and to help implement worldwide the very environmental and labor
practices the Third World WTO delegates complained they can't afford because
they are too costly.

Withdraw from NAFTA and the WTO. Wealth addicts have gotten carried away.
It is now time for rehab. Earlier in our history there were strict laws
mandating public hearings and revocations of corporations' charters for
misconduct, and restricting membership on corporate boards of directors to one
per person. Let's bring them back.

Irradiated and GM (Genetically Mutilated) frankenfood and other products
must be labeled.

End the war on drugs. Decriminalize marijuana and illegal narcotics such
as heroin, cocaine, and crack. Hard-core addiction is an illness, not a
crime. Put users on prescription, and crime will drop dramatically when they
don't have to rob and kill to pay the mob's high drug prices.

Any president or governor can ease prison over-crowding by commuting all
sentences of non-violent drug offenders to time served right now.

Any president or governor can stop the prison-building boom in its tracks
right now by commuting all sentences of non-violent drug offenders to time
served. Why not pressure them to do it?

The same goes for the death penalty. All death sentences can and should be
commuted at once. I have chosen Mumia Abu-Jamal, a noted author, journalist,
and activist currently on Death Row in Pennsylvania on questionable charges,
as my vice presidential running mate to show why we should join the rest of
the civilized world and halt executions forever.

Most of today's erotic "literature" does nothing for me, especially in the
sex department, but the best counter to bad porn, bad TV, bad media, and all
hate literature is more education through more free speech, not
censorship.

I am an anarchist in my personal life. I try to live in such a way that I
don't need cops or baby-sitters to keep me from infringing on the
rights/liberties of other species. But I don't feel we are far enough
evolved as a species to make anarchy work in society itself. We still need
government to transfer the wealth from those who have too much to those who
have too little, to make sure important projects get done, and keep
territorial humans from screwing over and killing each other.

So guess what? I'm Tough On Crime® so long as/especially when the
punishment fits the crime:

Sentence slum lords to live in their own buildings.

Sentence polluters to inhale, swim in and drink up the mess they've made
until they clean it up.

Sentence Savings and Loan sharks and white collar gangstas from our
inevitable bank deregulation to pay back all the money they stole, just like
if they held up a 7-11.

Sentence arms dealers and manufacturers to pay for rebuilding all the
homes, factories, farms, and cities destroyed by the wars they start.

End Police Brutality. I would end police brutality by making police
officers stand for election every four years, voted on by the districts they
control.

Lower the Voting Age to Five. We will see our supposed youth apathy
magically turn around when they know they are valued and have a real stake in
their future. They should get to vote for their school boards, and why not
their teachers?

Education Reform. A full education should include a mandatory class on
parenting in order to receive a high school diploma, and drug and sex
education with actual drugs and sex in the classroom. Showing how sex is
performed with an emphasis on sensitivity could do wonders for combating
sexism and date rape. Joycelyn Elders is right: teaching that masturbation is
appropriate and not a sin is far more realistic than expecting today's horny,
libidinous teens to bury their heads in abstinence.

Meanwhile, nothing gets bigger laughs at parties than our rigid drug
czar's wacky TV ads; to put it mildly: they don't work. Students should be
able to experiment with drugs in a supervised and controlled setting to learn
their limits, not sent blindly off on their own into the risks of hard core
addiction.

Ban drug and lie-detector tests of employees and students, and forbid
the drugging of schoolchildren against their will.

Give out giant waterproof Yuppie Parasite decals containing a skull and
crossed cell-phones to be plastered by concerned citizens on all sport utility
vehicles until the are eradicated from all urban and suburban areas.

Convert all giant sports stadiums into homeless shelters until the maximum
wage imposed on today's sports stars funds all the necessary low-income
housing.

Fight gentrification by allowing those under siege to spray whipped cream
on those who flaunt their upwardly mobile consumer status until the
interlopers our neighborhoods.

Election Reform. State and national legislative election should be
switched to a parliamentary system featuring proportional representation.
Campaigns should be limited to six weeks. Anyone campaigning or soliciting
bribes, excuse me, contributions beforehand will be automatically disqualified
from the ballot. If NOTA receives over 50% of the vote, a new election must be
held with all new candidates.

I apologize to those who feel I should wage a more aggressive campaign. I
am locked in my own battle against globalization that has been a huge strain
on my time, emotions, and resources. Former members of my old band are suing
me with the expressed intent of wiping out 22 years of work because I
wouldn't allow them to put one of our best-known songs in a Levi's Dockers
TV commercial. Trial begins April 17.

Plus, I voted for Ralph Nader last time [in 1996], and would gladly vote
for him again. Should I have let my name be on the ballot at all? On the one
hand, I have proven myself to be an effective media magnet and lightening rod
for protest votes reaching far beyond the underground popularity of my work
ever since I ran for mayor. On the other, should a flamboyant artist,
especially one whose sense of humor is designed to strike a nerve, be the main
banner-carrier at this stage? Or would more progress be made by the Green
Party running only "serious" candidates?

To some I'm a hedonistic loudmouth as wicked as Marilyn Manson, while
others take me more seriously than I take myself. I'm not even a good
wrestler.

Events in Seattle and around the globe show there are far more people on
our side of the fence than we give them credit for. What does it say about
our country when people are so desperate for an alternative to our one-party
system masquerading as a two-party system that they'll even elect a
professional wrestler governor? Steelworkers and eco-activists are marching
together. People are questioning whether it is more important to live in a
marketplace rather than a community. They question whether competitiveness is
more important than compassion and quality of life. More and more young
people see corporations as an authority figure to rebel against, instead of
buying into every bogus, manufactured pop trend. The spread of Students
Against Sweatshops on college campuses is a primary example of choosing a
battle that is not only just, but is also winnable, as opposed to not fighting
at all because fixing the whole world seems too hopeless.

Don't hate the media, become the media. Film-maker Michael Moore is
right: we must spend less time arguing and agreeing with each other, and more
time reaching out to other people who may not appear to agree with us, but
often share the same underlying concerns. No one who is down-sized out of a
job should be allowed to fall for Pat Buchanan. We need to show the step by
step ways that each individual can help free themselves from Corporate
Feudalism. Condensing and translating the Green Party Platform from
lawyer-ese into English, Español, etc. would be a big help here.

Inspire people to at least think of what they might do and where they would
fit in if we actually found ourselves in charge. For all their faults, at
least the front line opposition in places like the Czech Republic and South
Africa had some idea of how they would actually run things if and when they
had the chance. We're not there yet.

We must emphasize the importance of voting in local elections, where a
smaller group of concerned citizens can make the most difference.

Some people not yet weaned from today's Democratic Party will try to
intimidate us by calling us spoilers, siphoning away votes, and tipping close
races to Republicans. I say, "Great!" Let's do it some more. The real
spoilers are operatives like Clinton, Gore, Feinstein, and the Democratic
Leadership Council, who have rendered their party indistinguishable from the
party of Bu$h, Inc., and thus made the Greens, New Party, and others necessary
in the first place.

As it stands now, we are being farmed. Imagine what we can do if we gain
enough seats in legislatures to influence the balance of power and decision
making. Imagine what we can do if we get the 5% of the vote in this
presidential election necessary to gain federal matching funds for 2004. This
is all more than possible, even under current election laws.